Pakistan go with Iftikhar Ahmed and Haider Ali in the middle order
Toss: West Indies chose to bowl v Pakistan
Nicholas Pooran, the stand-in West Indies captain, won the toss and elected to bowl in the first of three T20Is at the National Stadium in Karachi.
West Indies are fall from full-strength with some high-profile players unavailable for several reasons. Dwayne Bravo has retired, Chris Gayle isn’t on tour, Jason Holder has been rested, Kieron Pollard is missing due to injury as if Fabian Allen, while Shimron Hetmyer, Andre Russell – currently playing in the BBL – Lendl Simmons and Even Lewis are unavailable for personal reasons.
Guyana batter Brandon King makes a return to the side after more than a year, and will slot in as the opener alongside Shai Hope. There was also a comeback for Devon Thomas, the wicketkeeper, after more than eight years in the wilderness. Thomas most-recently featured in a lone game of the ongoing Lanka Premier League for Kandy Warriors.
Dominic Drakes makes his debut following a breakout CPL season for Barbados Tridents. He was in the reserves for the T20 World Cup. There was also a debut for Shamarh Brooks, who has played eight Tests for West Indies.
Pakistan too are missing two senior players – Mohammad Hafeez and Shoaib Malik – but have retained the core of the side that toured UAE for the T20 World Cup, with Babar Azam and Mohammad Rizwan part of the leadership group as captain and vice-captain. They have gone for Iftikhar Ahmed ahead of Khushdil Shah in the middle order.
This is the first international assignment for West Indies since the T20 World Cup in UAE last month, while Pakistan are just coming off a successful tour of Bangladesh. West Indies will want to begin this series as an audition for next year’s World Cup, while Pakistan will be eying continuing their good work that began in Dubai, where they were the losing semi-finalists to eventual champions Australia, and continued in Bangladesh.
Pakistan: 1 Babar Azam (capt), 2 Mohammad Rizwan (wk), 3 Fakhar Zaman, 4 Haider Ali, 5 Iftikhar Ahmed, 6 Asif Ali, 7 Shadab Khan, 8 Mohammad Nawaz, 9 Mohammad Wasim Jr, 10 Haris Rauf, 11 Shaheen Shah Afridi
West Indies: 1 Brandon King, 2 Shai Hope, 3 Shamarh Brooks, 4 Devon Thomas, 5 Nicholas Pooran (capt, wk), 6 Rovman Powell, 7 Odean Smith, 8 Dominic Drakes, 9 Romario Shepherd, 10 Akeal Hosein, 11 Oshane Thomas
Shashank Kishore is a senior sub-editor at ESPNcricinfo